This dissertation studies the specificity of specialized lexical meanings, based on an analysis of the behaviour of relational nouns; it offers an integral explanation of specialized and non-specialized semantics and a modellization of a unified lexical entry. Thus, it combines the communicative model of terminology with polysemic models of generation of lexical meaning.

This work starts by presenting a critical review of linguistic and terminological approaches to the semantic properties of scientific lexicon. Then it procedes to analize the properties of specialized lexical meaning, the factors that influence semantic generation and its mechanism, based on the behaviour of madre in text corpora. It also provides criteria for the formal recognition of specialized semantic information which can help develop different kinds of applications. Finally, the dissertation puts forward a generalization of the specialized semantics of relational nouns and a representation of a dynamic entry, which contemplates components of linguistic and extralinguistic knowledge interacting in the generation of lexical meaning.